PORT ADELAIDE has kept the door open to recruit Essendon forward Orazio Fantasia but says the South Australian-raised player has not indicated he wants to return home, nor suggested he wants to leave the Bombers as yet.
Fantasia was linked to Port at the end of last season but a move never eventuated and General Manager - Football Chris Davies has revealed he has never spoken with the player.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Davies said a player like Fantasia would allow other players like Connor Rozee and Zak Butters to spend more time on the ball.
But he said the 25-year-old was still contracted at Essendon for 2021.
“As we’ve said all along, if he tells Essendon that he wants to go and he wants to come back to South Australia then we’ll absolutely be in the market for him,” Davies said.
“But there’s a significant moment that he needs to take first and that’s telling Essendon that he wants out.
“We’ve spoken to his manager absolutely, as is the way that these things work, is important to know how the market is going to move.
“We’ve made sure that his manager knows that if he tells Essendon that he wants out that we would like to be in that conversation.”
Fantasia has a history of soft tissue injuries, which have limited him to just five games in 2020 and 33 in the last three years.
Davies said that injury history would be a factor in any potential move for the 80-game forward but he backed the club’s medical staff to get any player fit.
“We’re confident in our medical staff – if we take Orazio’s specific situation away, over the last ten years our injury rate is the best in the AFL competition so if anyone as a group are going to be able to get someone fit, I would be backing our team in over anyone else’s,” he said.
“We’re aware of the challenges that Orazio has had, just as we are of a number of players in the competition.
“Any player who comes to Port Adelaide, I back our medical staff to get them right, whether they’ve had injury issues in the past or not.
“I think our high-performance department are the best in the business and the results of the last ten years would suggest that that’s the case.”
Port Adelaide would no doubt be keen to add more potency to its forward line with Charlie Dixon the only Power player to boot more than 15 goals in 2020.
It will also need to replace the retired Brad Ebert (11 goals) and Justin Westhoff (10 goals) but Davies said he was also eager to see 2018 draftees Zak Butters, Connor Rozee and Xavier Duursma spend more time in the midfield.
“Rozee was in his under 16 year, crowned the best under 16 player in Australia, as a midfielder,” he explained.
“Butters has gone in there probably more than anyone this year and has shown that he brings a dynamic in that midfield that we don’t have and probably is the one who comes closest to providing what we do need in there.
“And you’ve got Duurs who is courageous and also has the outrun capability of getting from contest to contest and is courageous enough to go on ball.
“If a player of the like of Fantasia or another forward if it’s not him comes into our group, we would be seeing the evolution of our group being those guys to be playing more midfield time.”
While the door remains ajar for Fantasia should he choose to leave the Bombers, Davies firmly shut it on Crows midfielder Brad Crouch coming across to Alberton as a free agent.
Crouch is out of contract and it has been widely reported that he will leave West Lakes for the right long-term high-paying deal.
It has been reported that Crouch wants to move to St Kilda.
Davies was not aware of that, but was categoric in ruling out any approach for him by Port.
“Brad Crouch won’t be at Port Adelaide next year, as I’ve said, the machinations of him getting onto our list, I just think are insurmountable to achieve and we’re probably not focussing on that area,” Davies said.
